Democratic governor of New York; Kathy Hochulis facing political heat by saying that rioters made New York City safer on a train and killed a woman on fire the same day.
In an 10 post On Sunday, Hochul claimed that subway crime has decreased since he deployed the National Guard to help it.
“In March I worked to make our subways safer for the millions of people who take the trains every day,” Hochul’s letter read. “When you plan [national guard] to help [New York police] and [Metropolitan Transportation Authority] By adding safety efforts and cameras to all subway cars, it’s a crime to get off and ride on.
It followed a press conference last week in which the president said subway crime would drop 42% after January 2021 and discussed plans to send 750 members of the National Guard into the reserves to help control holiday crime.
But Hochul came to the station eight hours after an allegedly homeless man and a woman — who appeared to be strangers to him — caught fire and watched his train burn to death in Brooklyn on the F train.
The attack happened at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station at about 7.30am on Sunday, according to the New York Police Department. Police said the man threw a lighter at the woman, and she was engulfed in flames in seconds.
The suspect in the case, who was arrested, allegedly sat on a subway bench and watched the woman burn to death before setting herself on fire.
Jessica Tisch, police commissioner; He said at a press conference Sunday evening that surveillance footage indicated that the victim and her assailant were both transported by train earlier that morning.
As the train pulled into the station, the assailant walked up to the woman, who may be sleeping, and used what authorities say was a lighter to set the victim’s clothing on fire — “which was fully submerged within seconds,” Tisch said.
“Unbeknownst to the officers who responded, the suspect remained on the scene and sat on a bench on the platform outside the train car, and the body camera in the responding officers issued a clearly expressed killer; ” said Tisch.
A police body camera and surveillance photos were key to arresting the suspects, investigators said. Authorities are believed to be three high school-aged New Yorkers who recognized the suspects and called police.
“Our officers … stopped that train in Herald Square and were able to keep the gates closed, walk the train and take this dangerous man into custody,” said transit police chief Joseph Gulotta.
The suspect said when the lighter was found in his bag.
Some sources described the person of interest in the case to Fox News Digital as 33-year-old Sebastin Zapeta, saying he first entered the US in Guatemala in 2018. Donald Trumpfirst presidency
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A video circulating on social media appeared to show the suspect killed in the subway on Sunday’s train saying at some point in Spanish: “I put my beer down and live what I am – as long as I don’t bother anyone, I don’t bother anyone. Why do people have problems with me? That’s the problem. “I’m not doing it.”
Hochul’s tweets about subway safety drew criticism, with many users of the social platform responding with video clips of Sunday’s killing.
Melissa DeRosa, who served under Governor Andrew Cuomo in New York, said the woman killed was not the only person killed in the subway system on Sunday.
“2 were killed on the train today,” DeRosa wrote. “There’s a NY City mayor who can’t even be bothered to read a newspaper while he’s in town.”
The second incident to which DeRosa was referring, he explained hours earlier – when one man was stabbed to death and another was seriously injured in the 7 Queens train.
Since November, they have reported nine murders on the subway in 2024, five more than the same period in 2023, according to police data.
But subway crime is likely to become the dominant issue in both Hochul and Greater New York; Eric Adams – who faces federal campaign charges – prepare for re-election campaigns.
Earlier in December, Manhattan was sworn in Daniel Penny, a former marine, graduated of criminally negligent homicide in the death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man who had been threatening train passengers when Penny grabbed him from behind and continued to choke him for several minutes.